Tragic Details About Former Fox News Star Kari Lake

Embracing the rhetoric that the 2020 election was stolen, as President Donald Trump put it numerous times (despite clear evidence to the contrary) is quite a tragedy, but such is the story of former Fox 10 news anchor Kari Lake. These days, she's better known for her many controversial moments. An avid Trump supporter, it did not come as much of a surprise when President Donald Trump announced he'd selected Lake to head Voice of America, an organization that was founded on the principle of providing the public with unbiased reporting — something Trump has shown contempt for in the past — often dubbing reliable reporting as "fake news."

The president rewarded loyalists almost instantly after his November 2024 victory, making shocking and controversial appointments to his cabinet left and right, with many pointing out that his new picks were already trying way too hard to inflate his overblown ego. Lake didn't even have to try — she wholeheartedly supported the divisive politician's claims that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats. In a 2022 speech, Lake didn't mince words about the Democratic party. "They have a demonic agenda," she said (via Phoenix Magazine), calling Joe Biden's 2020 win the result of a "sham election." The reporter for Phoenix Magazine who was in the audience called Lake's assertions "needlessly divisive" and "dangerous." Lake also took on the "fake news" in her speech at the Republican National Convention and called the Democrats liars.

Lake's outspokenness on controversial topics is arguably the reason for many of the tragedies that have befallen her in the last couple of years — both in her personal and professional life.

When Donald Trump relentlessly argued that his 2020 election loss was the result of fraud and refused to gracefully accept his defeat like every other office-respecting candidate before him, he set a dangerous precedent, one that Kari Lake reached for immediately when she faced her own election loss in 2022. Lake faced off against Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs in the Arizona gubernatorial race, and when the votes didn't tally in her favor, she refused to accept the outcome and took her case to court, claiming that mail-in ballots hadn't been correctly verified. A judge eventually dismissed the case when Lake failed to provide any evidence to support her claims.

The irony wasn't lost on anyone. Lake had used Trump's so-called unfair 2020 loss as the basis for her own campaign, engaging in the spread of misinformation to further her cause and rile people up to get their vote. This got the attention and support of plenty of MAGA diehards, but in the end, it wasn't enough. Supporters even aided Lake in her fundraising efforts to take her case to court after she demanded to be instated as the new governor while votes are recounted, a request that was denied.

Even after the court dismissed her case, Lake refused to admit that she'd lost fair and square. During a 2024 interview with CNN's "The Source with Kaitlin Collins," the former gubernatorial hopeful refrained from answering whether she had come to accept her 2022 loss. "Why are we looking backward? I'm looking forward," she answered. "You've seen thousands of interviews from me. I've answered that [question] a million times."

Kari Lake's decision to dispute her 2022 election loss was not without its lack of casualties. Stephen Richer, Recorder for Maricopa County, Arizona, most notably bore the brunt of Lake's accusations of election fraud. Despite being a fellow Republican, Lake accused Richer of "intentionally sabotaging the election" (via NBC News), claiming he had somehow invented 300,000 "illegal, invalid, phony or bogus" ballots that were cast during early elections (via AZ Mirror). Lake's dangerous claims turned Richer's life into a nightmare. He and his family were bombarded with death threats and public harassment, and he subsequently sued Lake for defamation. 

Lake's husband, Jeff Halperin, tried to get his wife out of this legal pickle by filing a motion of his own with the court, petitioning the judge to dismiss Richer's case. It's worth noting that, during one point in the arduous legal proceedings, Lake admitted she'd fabricated the claims against Richer, but when it came to public statements, she continued to say the opposite. 

After a drawn-out legal battle, the case was finally settled in November 2024. It's not clear who walked out the winner since details about the settlement weren't made public. "The matter has been settled and was resolved to the satisfaction of both parties," a member of Richer's legal team told NBC News. 

In 2024, Kari Lake ran for governor a second time, this time facing off against Democratic nominee Ruben Gallego. She lost the race — again. Gallego successfully managed to use Lake's peddling of conspiracy theories against her, managing to appeal to those who were not eager to cast their vote for either a Democratic or Republican candidate. Lake engaged in some dirty politics in the lead-up to the election, attempting a smear campaign against Gallego regarding his divorce. 

In what was reminiscent of her first gubernatorial campaign, Lake once again failed to concede the election to her opponent once the results were in. Instead, she took to X, formerly Twitter, to address the residents of Arizona. "I can say for certain that truth will never stop mattering to me... I will never stop fighting for the state I love." Lake declared. She appeared to insinuate that the Democrats engaged in foul play to ensure she didn't get elected to office. "They threw everything at us, fake news, hundreds of millions of dollars, and the most vile attacks," she claimed. 

While many Republicans bought Lake's allegations that her first gubernatorial election was stolen from her, others were put off by her claims ahead of the 2024 election. While speaking to Arizonians about who would get their vote in the 2024 election, one told NBC News that, while they believed the 2020 presidential election was rigged in the Democrats' favor, they didn't buy Lake's 2022 claims of election fraud. Another registered Republican told the outlet that they feared Lake's inability to let go of her 2024 loss will lead to her downfall. "At this point, it makes her lose credibility," they argued. "And if she were to recognize that, then she would probably gain a lot more support."

When Covid-19 hit, Kari Lake was still working at Fox 10, and she soon started using her platform as a news anchor to spread misinformation about the pandemic. Most notably, she loudly disagreed with the stay-at-home orders, sharing a video from two doctors who claimed isolation was only worsening the pandemic (it was, in fact, helping to contain the virus).

The video has since been removed from all social media platforms for spreading dangerous misinformation. Despite it being called out as such at the time, Lake still shared it multiple times on her social media platforms. "One of the most HONEST COVID-19 briefings I've seen to date," she proclaimed on X, formerly Twitter, where she shared a link to the now-deleted video on YouTube. At the time, many called her out for spreading misinformation. "You should be reported for promoting this quackery," one user commented on the post. Added another: "You should be suspended from your job as a news anchor. Spreading misinformation is why this was removed from YT. #Disgusting."

The backlash doesn't appear to have deterred Lake in the least. In 2022, she brought up the pandemic again in a speech. Calling the CDC's Covid policies bogus and touting Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine as cures for the virus. "They work... we know that now," she claimed (via Phoenix Magazine). In her November 2024 address after losing her second gubernatorial bid, Lake also touched on the pandemic and claimed she left Fox because she was being forced to broadcast the government's lies surrounding the pandemic. "I was sickened spreading the government's Covid narrative," she said. "I walked away from a seven-figure contract in the fake news because I couldn't lie to you. What good is money if it comes at the cost of your soul?" 

If sources at Fox who spoke to Phoenix Magazine are to be believed, Kari Lake dug her own grave at Fox 10. As social media became an integral part of the network's operations in the 2010s, news anchors were vying for attention on social media, trying to prove their worth to the network. One employee described it as a "'Hunger Games' situation," and Lake was making sure she was winning, whatever it took. And she was good at picking out topics that drove engagement, most notably the #RedForEd fair-pay teachers' movement, which the nighttime news anchor described as "nothing more than a push to legalize pot," on her official X handle (via Phoenix New Times)

Lake's own outspokenness is likely why she became an avid fan of Donald Trump, who is known for speaking off the cuff. "The more she drank the Kool-Aid, the more she became intoxicated with it," one of Lake's former colleagues recalled. This was also what sealed her fate at Fox, according to former colleague Diana Pike, who told Phoenix magazine that "2018 was kind of her demise, the end of her relationship with the station," adding, "Her thing became, 'It's freedom of speech, I have the right to say what I want to say.'"

In the end, Lake announced her departure from the station in 2021 in a short video she shared to X, formerly Twitter, claiming she no longer wanted to work as a reporter. "In the last few years I haven't felt proud to be a member of the media," she said (via Rumble). "I found myself reading news copy that I didn't believe was fully truthful, or only told part of the story, and I began to fear that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession."